Alinghi (horse)

Alinghi (foaled 20 August 2001) is an Australian Thoroughbred racemare who won four Group One races, including the Newmarket Handicap and A$4,161,740 in prize money. She was by the leading sire, Encosta De Lago from Oceanfast by Monde Bleu (GB). Oceanfast's racing record was 12 starts for 2 wins, 3 seconds and 3 thirds for $82,760 and Alinghi is her only stakes winner up until July 2009.

Alinghi was trained by Lee Freedman. She is one of the few fillies to win the Newmarket Handicap in just her 3-year old year of racing, the Newmarket Handicap is the greatest sprint race in Australia and has been won by some of the greatest horses to have been seen in Australia such as Placid Ark, Schillaci, Bernborough, Wakeful, Ajax and more recently by Takeover Target, Weekend Hussler and Black Caviar.

Some of Alinghi's other Group 1 wins were the AAMI Blue Diamond Stakes which is the second best Juvenile stakes race in Australia, the Ascot Vale which is Victoria’s premier three-year-old sprint race, the Thousand Guineas which is run over 1,600 metres and the Robert Sangster Stakes, a 1,200-metre race held in South Australia.

Over Alinghi's short career she beat other Group 1 winners including Hollow Bullet and most notably another three-year-old champion in Fastnet Rock.

Alinghi was never unplaced until her last start in Australia which was her sixteenth start, she finished fourth in the T J Smith Stakes at Randwick Racecourse.

Alinghi was later sent to the United States where her race conditioning was taken over by U.S. Racing Hall of Famer trainer, Robert Frankel. Alinghi won her first start in the Grade III Ballston Spa Handicap over 1,700 metres at Saratoga Race Course on 30 August 2005 before finishing eighth in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland in Kentucky. Alinghi was retired in late 2005 after suffering a tendon injury at track work in America while being prepared for her next start at Santa Anita Park and was retired to Arrowfield Stud.

Alingi's dam Oceanfast elevated herself to elite status at Easter of 2008 when her Encosta De Lago yearling set a new record of $2.6 million for a filly sold in Australia.